Does anybody really think Dan Savage is the right guy to lead an anti-bullying campaign?!

Bullying sucks! I think we can all agree. But when a the leader of an anti-bullying campaign condescends to bullying Christians by bashing the Bible, do we think he is really qualified to lead the charge?!

In case you missed it, here is a gem of a video of Dan Savage, head of the “It Gets Better” campaign insulting Christian students at a high school journalism conference. The Christians had the good sense to quit the auditorium politely voting with their feet on the validity of Savage’s speech. Good for them! Savage further showed a lack of courage as well as poor taste by bashing the Christians who were standing in the a hall by calling them names, saying, “They can come back in now. I’m through bashing the Bible.”

Parents and students expressed their disgust with Savage following his rant in a recent article on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze.com.  The Blaze writer Billy Hallowell captures the feeling of many of the students present who walked out in a quote from  18-year old Jake Naman of Redlands Calif., who says, ” I felt like in my heart I couldn’t just stay there at all. It was a really weird feeling I just had to get out. I didn’t want to cause a scene but I really could not stand to be in that room anymore.”

Bullying is not a small issue, it’s too big indeed for this small minded man (Savage)! Let me illustrate. I read in today’s edition of the Rochester Post Bulletin that 13-year old Rachel Ehmke died Sunday in her home town of Kasson Minnesota. A victim of suicide and, you guessed it, bullying. Post Bulletin writer Jeff Hansel captures the emotion of this tragic loss in a quote from Kasson-Mantorville School Superintendant Mark Matuska.

” When I walked through and saw how much pain some of those kids were in, and saw how much pain some of those adults were in…” Matuska says, his voice trailing off. ” “It hurts! This whole process. It hurts me personally, and we know that there are some parents out there who are dealing with some issues.”

It hurts. Absolutely it does. The pictures of a smiling Rachel illustrates the pain of loss like nothing else. How can something so awful happen to someone so young, pretty and full of life?

And in my view a man who sees fit to bash people for their religious beliefs is unfit to talk to teenagers about anything, much less the tender subject of bullying.

I don’t care who you are, gay, straight, black, white, red, it doesn’t matter. Kids are brutal to each other and adults are often no better. Our schools should be safe environments for our kids to grow up and learn. But as we have found out over and over again, they are not safe. And, they’ve become a political Petri dish where the gay left is allowed to foist a pro-gay overly sexualized worldview onto our tender youth. Gay sex advice columnists like Savage should be disinvited from future speaking engagements in front of students. And for those districts who do have him as a guest, the parents in that district should give their local school boards a piece of their minds.

Goodbye Rachel, we failed you.